ENGLAND wore purple and, as if that were not bad enough, were in a haze about what it takes to win a Test against a higher calibre of opposition.

When England presumptuously spurned penalty chances at six points down and with time to spare, they forfeited the match.

Sir Clive Woodward is one who has condemned
captain Chris Robshaw’s tactical choice. If you ignore the kick at goal,
then you absolutely have to score the try.

This is both a coaching and playing issue, to
Woodward’s mind, in that those on the field have to have been drilled
about what to do by those off the field.

“The team live and die by the decisions made in the
heat of the moment,” said Toby Flood. As Flood was the one taking the
kicks, his view was relevant. But as is the custom, no one – certainly
not head coach Stuart Lancaster – will ever issue anything that
resembles public criticism.

“Some calls were made to go for the corner,” said Lancaster. “At
the time we felt it was the right thing. We have to back ourselves to
score from those situations.

It’s a gut instinct, the way I play. It didn’t come off

Ben Youngs

“I’m not going to stand here and criticise players’
decision-making. What we should do from there is score the try.”

A kick to the corner can always be relied on to
animate the Twickenham crowd more than the cacophony from the
loudspeaker which kills the atmosphere every time anyone scores. But
plainly it cannot be relied on to lead to an English try.

There was also a Ben Youngs tap penalty which did
not work out and, much earlier, Danny Care’s, which did with Manu
Tuilagi’s try. Hindsight makes it easy enough to decide which of those
was right and wrong.

“It’s a gut instinct, the way I play. It didn’t come off,” said Youngs unapologetically.

Much of the game went against prediction.
Australia were comfortably held up in the scrummage, but they dominated
the tackle area.

But
this evoked a familiar English chorus about how the Wallabies slowed
down their ball, the subtext as usual being that it had been nefarious
and that referee Romain Poite was less kind to England than Australia.

In one specifi c case they were right – the
glaringly forward pass by Nick Phipps to Nick Cummins in the creation of
the Australian try. But Lancaster was right not to moan, as there was
also a forward pass in the prelude to Tuilagi’s try.

“A couple of times we felt we didn’t get the rub
of the green, a few times we felt slightly harddoneby,” said the coach.

“Understanding the referee’s interpretation of the
breakdown, what he allows and doesn’t, we definitely have to do
better.”

Who will be
given that task by Lancaster against South Africa will induce more
selection debate than if his team had justified their favourites’
status.

Lancaster may
have been mistaken in resisting the urge to start with Joe Launchbury
in his second row, in that if he does against South Africa it would make
more of a demand on a callow 21-year-old. But all he did in his 30
minutes against Fiji and 26 against Australia has shown him as a
prodigious prospect.

So, with the All Blacks to follow, why wait any longer? “I had to try to
make an impact and impose myself,” he said. “I do feel ready.”

England’s prospect of being in the top four at
next month’s World Cup pool draw has faded but, as Woodward said, the
thing that matters is winning the next match.